This week, I joined journalist, author and book coach, Natasha Tynes in a live session where we spoke raw and unfiltered about what it means to grow a writing business, being a solopreneur and trying to turn your creativity into your lifestyle.
Spoiler alert: this solopreneur business is bloody hard, and if you are trying to find a magic fix to make 6 figures quickly, this is the wrong session.
Natasha asked me very direct and thought-provoking questions and we addressed topics that are often uncomfortable and controversial, such as not making enough to pay the bills when you are starting, writing to the void, and deciding when to give up and go back to the 9-to-5.
If you are up for a hot session that will make you reflect, reassess and take risks, now we’ve got you.
This is what you can expect in these 55 minutes:
The reality of book publishing
Book royalties pay peanuts (technically 8% of peanuts) but you can leverage books to elevate authority and create opportunities beyond sales.
Traditional publishing, especially with a major house, acts as a third-party endorsement. It has allowed me to speak at international literary festivals (many exclude self-published authors), secure higher-paying corporate gigs, and attract coaching clients who see the book as proof of expertise.
I also share how I landed a book deal with a major publisher (Penguin) without an agent and tips to pitch for The Anti-Procrastinator.
How to actually turn a writing business into a profitable one
Reality check: most writers don’t make money from writing. What?!
Yep, monetization often extends past writing into courses, webinars, or coaching. Writing alone rarely makes for a sustainable income.
My public-speaking keynotes and workshops for Fortune 500 companies (e.g., UBS, S&P) generate the largest checks $3,000–$5,000 per session. Digital courses on Gumroad repackage my newsletter content into scalable products ($88–$100+), while one-to-one coaching provides personalized high-ticket revenue.
Your book or newsletter serves as the entry point for readers to discover you, but you grow a business by building an ecosystem with layered offers that go beyond writing.
Use your writing as the gateway and the foundation to go deeper.
If you want to grow, collaborate
Subscriber growth accelerates through partnerships (lives, Guest Posts, webinars).
After a year of slow growth, I shifted from solo posting to intentional collaborations: Guest Posts, Substack Lives, marketing affiliate and cross-promotions. These expose my work to new audiences and networks.
I’m a triathlete and I always follow the “together we run further” proverb in sports, in business and in life.
Look within your community and find partners to collaborate. It’s less draining and more fun (like today!).
The answer is in a diversified portfolio
Natasha asked me this question,
“Is it possible to have a sustainable writing business?”
Long-term sustainability demands a growth mindset because you have to see abundance to be able to create abundance.
Most creators only see meaningful results after 1–2 years. Many have given up by then. I earned almost nothing in the first three months and only covered bills after six but I kept going because I believe in what I’m building. It took two full years to approach corporate-level income (some months), and even now it fluctuates.
A single stream (e.g., paid subscriptions at 2–3% conversion) can hardly turn into a sustainable business, so the answer is not doing more but adding layers of active and passive income. In my case, B2B speaking, digital courses, coaching…
How to organize your time: do less but do it better
Productivity is an equation of input first, output second, but we often forget about the input and self-care becomes an afterthought.
We are not machines.
Focus on the input: what do you need to be at your best?
Look at your current lifestyle and patterns: how you sleep, your exercise routine, your off-screen time…all of that indirectly impacts the quality of your work.
Bad input → bad output
Set boundaries and say no to the things that drain you so that you can dedicate your energy to tasks that add value to your dream business and life and to the people you care about.
When you set boundaries for your time and your mental space, you are protecting your work but also your people and yourself ❤️
Lemons & Lemonade 🍋
For more resources to help you grow your digital business, upgrade now to unlock full access to: Lives & Webinars, Substack Bestseller, Authors VIP Corner and more.
Thank you Fleur Hull, Margaret Williams, MS, ACC, Anfernee, Paul Cobbin, Seasalt, and many others for tuning into our live session!
And if you are ready to launch your digital course, check out my new online tutorial, The Gumroad Academy: a simple framework to guide you from zero to launch.
